Good’ol Gem of the Darkside nation 5 Dubcore

As you have probably realize i’ve been sick and don’t had much time to take care of the blog. But i’m back stronger then ever !

I want to dedicate this post to a not well known part of the darkside nation. The dubstep scene seems obviously to be part of bass music but i’m seeing more and more producers that want to make it darker and harder. Obviously for me it could be part of our scene. The dark part of dubstep goes well with crossbreed, hard drum’n'bass (darkstep and techno-dnb) and industrial hardcore.

This is the point i want to show with this post.As dubstep is a pretty nu genre most of the time in this post will not be that old but good music is good music is good music.  And i hope i could give you some ideas for promoting event, making mix and stuff. Just food for thought you know

The Outside Agency – Wait your Turn

Label Killing Sheep KSHEEPV011

Release year 2010

You know i’m a true fan of killing sheep from previously posted article. This is the shizzit. Totally forward thinking. hope more tune of this kind appears so we can make mix that melt dubstep and reallly really hard stuff. this do is hard stuff. for real. this is the real deal. No mistake. killer label. killer artists.

Broken Note – Zound

Label Boka BOKA032

Release year 2010

Broken Note – War in the Making

Label Ruff RUFF 08

Release year 2008

Broken note paved the way for really industrial dubstep. This guy is a genius. he could make hard drum’n'bass, breakcore or dubcore and brings always something new. Just listen to this shit and bang your head. bang your head. BANG ! BANG ! BANG

!

Sinister Souls – In the Filth

Label S.C.U.M SUBSCUM 008EP

Release year 2012

For me they are the most ground breaking stuff in this dubcore thing right now. There production are tight as fuck and really hard industrial bassline, pounding drums. This stuff is soo good. And it brings something really good to the scene i think.

Even the master of the darkside nation are bringing some dubcore tune these days so watch out for something big !!!

Current Value – Burn In

Label the Sect TSM002

Release year 2013

The wooble is something else. No one ever something that wicked. It’s the current value sound design wizardry. The production is tight as hell as always with CV. This could make some serious damage on the dancefloor. Love this tune so much. Hope more tune of this kind appears.

DJ Hidden – Drastic

Label Hidden Tracks HIDTR002

Release year 2011

Like wait your turn it’s more some kind of experimental shit but that will work well on the dancefloor. This tune change all the time. it’s so well executed. the mixdown is so good. the sound design is perfect. When you hear a tune like that you know why DJ hidden is one the king of the industrial rave scene.

EDIT A FREE RELEASE YOU MUST DOWNLOAD

Suicide Silence -  Bludgeoned to Death (Mantis Deathstep Remix)

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Hackney Soldiers: The Birth Of Jungle

this article is about sound system in east london and the birth of Jungle.

It gaves lots of hindsight about what jungle was back then

GIVE IT A TRY

Good’ol Gem of the Darkside nation 3

here we go again. i’ve taken some time to make this third edition but this time i’ll show more tunages…

 

enough blabla some music action

Current Value – Faith

Label Freak recordings FREAKLP001

Release Year 2007

This tune is typical of the old style of current value. You can define some kind of a switch into Current Value style. the first part of his music is all about rythmical madness. This tune is full on intensity but rythmical stuff of Current Value can be also less intense yet there are always twisted and sound like no one else.the second part is the techy, sound design from outer space current value.

Anyway there is so kind of magic happening here : it’s really complex and twisted but it’s also catchy as fuck. it’s like some kind of organized chaos. It doesn’t feel at all like Breakcore, which is often punkish, lofi and chaotic, even if it’s hard breakbeat headfuck.

Like always with Current Value the productions skillz are two step ahead nearly everybody in the scene. I hope he still produce tunes like this but he has moved on more complex and intense sound design and less rythmical stuff. Anyway  he produce what he want and i’m no one to tell him what must do!

this tune is perhaps the hardest tune ever around 175 bpm….

I:Gor – Kikin Beatz

Label Peacemaker 11

Release Year 2006

This tune is so good. heard it in parties and don’t know at that time it was an I:Gor tune. There is all the elements i have come to love in an I:Gor tune. There is this distortion wizardry with ultradistorted industrial tone. there is also breakbeat and hiphop flavors

Only few manage to make industrial tone like this. it’s easy to put a 909 bassdrum into a random distortion. it’s a lot harder to achieve something unique. This is something that industrial hardcore producer often manage better than regular drum’n'bass producer.

What i also like with I:Gor is the fuck it all attitude wich remind me a early techstep. I:gor don’t let him fool by genre. There is producer who jump on the bandwagon and try to follow the trend and there is the one who create the trend. I:gor is of course no the only one to create trend but at the end of the day those who mimic the trend of the day will be forgotten easily when stuff move on.

Meat Beat Manifesto – Radio Babylon

Label Nothing Records INT8P-6169

Release Year 1997

this is perhaps as far as i know the first jungle tune. this is were everything begin. All the key elements are here. Intensive sample culture of hiphop melted with rave culture, ragga sample. There is breakbeat looped, ragga sample, heavy subbass. It was a important record at the time. lots of people says they have find inspiration into this tune.

Mescalinum United – We Have Arrived

Label Planet Core PCP 006

Release year 1990

this is where hardcore techno begin. lot’s of people say it was the first real hardcore tune. And as you can hear there is no stupid cheesy popish melodies. it’s raw as fuck, dark as hell and heavy as you can dream of. it was a really influential release at that time. For me it’s still sound fresh even if i was a kid at that time

Good’ol Gem of the Darkside nation 2

It’s time for our second good ol Gem.

this time i will try to bring some tunes that could help us strenghten darkstep and crossbreed.

 

 

Dylan & BKey – the Whorror

Label Freak recordings 012

Release Year 2005

This tune is perhaps the first that i’ve heard that melted hardcore kickdrum with broken rythm. It’s even before the 2006 Time like these release of DJ Hidden. the problem is not who is the first cause tune take time to be released and i don’t know who produce the first proto crossbreed tune.

My point is here that crossbreed is better when it’s balanced between both complex breakbeat and hardcore kickdrum. at least for my taste. Distorded hardcore breakbeat complement so well hardcore distorded bassline. It’s like the better of both world, sound design, heavyness and rythmical complexity.

The tune is not that complex but very well crafted. The intro put you in the mood with it horror movies ambiance. Then the drop is built around the oppposition of Hardcore kick overly distorded. it’s not as extreme as what nowadays producer could achieve but it’s still really powerfull. and then you have the madness of dirty breakbeat going mental.

It’s like fire and ice. static heavy kick and rolling heavy breakbeat.

Hope in some way now that people have acquire knowledge about distorsion from hardcore producers that people bring back a bit of the dark breakbeat science darkstep was about. Obviously when you melt both of achieve something that is more that the sum of his part like this tune show it pretty well

I want also to stress the importance of the Dylan‘s Freak label for the expansion of Darkstep. It’s perhaps the first label that focus primarily on the darkside of drum’n'bass. Melting the rythmical madness of drumfunk and the distorded fuckitall attitude of techstep and bring to table the dark art of darkstep

Limewax – icicle

Label Freak recordings 028

Release Year 2008
This tune define for me the style of limewax and why i fell in love with this genre of drum’n'bass. No boring 2 step pattern. Crazy rythm perfectly distorded and crafted. Dark ambiance. and fucking underground attitude of pushing the drum’n'bass canvas to his fucking limit in term of violence, complexity and heavyness.

Of course most people can’t dance of something like this. But we are not most people. At least in each of my set i’m trying to drop some of these complex tunes.

And when it work… when the dancefloor understand this kind of experimental music : it’s so good !!! It’s not random and chaotic like most breakcore. it’s heavy and dark as fuck.  just pure evilness. Caution these breakbeat are meant to kill !!! It’s this limit in term of complexity that i want darkstep to achieve. The two last producer that make this kind of stuff are Limewax and Throttler. I’m just trying to push them a little bit the forefront because hardcore kicks and distorsion are really effective and creative stuff to destroy the dancefloor but so do breakbeat. And for me Crossbreed is about both

Good’ol Gem of the Darkside nation : 1

Hi darksider !

i haven’t post for some days cause i’ve quited my flat to a new one. you know the deal : no internet, lots of carton box everywhere, really tired now. but enough talking about me let’s talk about music

I’ve seen a lots of new people interested by darkstep because of crossbreed. that what lead me to introduce industrial hardcore into this blog (for more info about this check my post about The Darkside Nation) but there have been some rant about the evolution of darkstep. I’ve think quite a bit about this and i think some people really made a point. lot’s of people are missing the point of Crossbreed i think. In my first post about crossbreed (called brokencore at that time because of the lack of a real name) I talk about a wrong turn where people would make crossbreed mix.

Crossbreed is not a substyle of hardcore for me. It could be much much more. It’s all about hybridization of different part of music. Crossbreed could  be about industrial distorsion, dark melancholic melodies, dissonnant sound design, complex broken rythm. It could hybridize part of drum’n'bass, and hardcore but to work it need to be much more than the sum of it part. Crossbreed is also not only a style of production but also a way to make mix of music. A Crossbreed mix is based of a blend of different ambiance and texture. If you mix only crossbreed tracks with crossbreed tracks where is the hybridization ? If on the other hand you mix a roller with a hardcore track than a crossbreed then a military rolling snare thingy it’s a lot more creative.

My point is not to tell you what you should do. you should do what is good for you of course. But when i see people putting Mainstream Hardcore track into underground mix,, when i see mainstream hardcore artist jumping into the band wagon of Crossbreed, when i see mix made of nearly the same track for one hour, I just see a big risk of the whole scene selling out and becoming boring, generic and dull.

I can’t change that if that is what people want but i can do my own part to avoid this. That is why i will now from time to time have a series of post called Good Ol Gem of the Darkside Nation. I will try to dig for you some of the gem of our scene to try to showcase you what have been tryed in the scene (what work  for me of course).

My little contribution to a scene that change my life. By knowing our past hopefully we can keep to move forward

So enough talking now some music :

Dj Hidden – The untouched

Label Smackdown Record 001

Release Year 2009

Why i like this track : everything is perfect in this track. Probably one of the best track of Dj Hidden. Start with a creepy intro. Lot’s of ambiance. Cool edit on the vocal. that introduce a dark stringy kind off lead. Industrial kick and lot’s of break mangled so well together. It just flow and give you the urge to dance. The break is really complex with lot’s of different melodic sound. The melodies actually evolve and grow continually. It’s not dj tool it’s just pure music.

Intense, dark, creative, complex and heavy.  What i like with Dj Hidden music is just that  : it’s music.

Musical ideas are not just there : they grow all along the track. Lot’s of underground music thing being underground is all about distorsion or violence but for me that is non sense. Being underground is avoiding stupid hook music without being boring. And if you have studied a bit music, the only actual solution is to develop your musical ideas.

The Dj Producer – Damage by Dj

Label Deathchant 08

Release Year  1997

This track is a gem for me. It’s not as complex as the previous one but with the limited power of creative tools of that time it’s still very fresh. This is good fun music but still intricate and musicaly engaging. in the days of crossbreed  of drum’n'bass and hardcore people got to remember that crossbreed could be much more that alternate and distorted kick between a snare. This track is really funky but still hardcore as fuck. a great classic for me

The evolution of Crossbreed

I talked previously about what at that time i’ve called Brokencore. I named this way the nu sound that was emerging: trying to blur line between industrial hardcore and darkstep. I will now call it Crossbreed because it’s the name people stick. there is no use to stay on a name that nobody is using. in fact it’s not the name it’s the music. let’s call it Crossbreed because everybody use this name

So what’s about crossbreed ?

There is more and more people liking this stuff, more and more producer producing it. i think we now should think where we want to push it. In fact even if we don’t want, i think we have to. why ? because Crossbreed is so harsh for a lot of dnb head it’s not drum’n'bass anymore. Darkstep allready had a special place in the drum’n'bass scene being mostly played into hard parties and not your regular jumpup/electrostep that is the mainstream dnb sound. I don’t say to diss this jump up sound it’s just not what i do like. each to his one…

This lead to me to this : Crossbreed need a dedicated scene. We need to build a nu scene around this sound, keeping it fresh and full of creativity. We should try to push parties with mostly or only darkstep/crossbreed/hardcore line up (perhaps it’s not possible everywhere dunno). We should spread the knowledge about this sound.

One point that we should take account also is to try to take better of each sound crossbreed is made of.

One thing that i really like with  industrial Hardcore is that it fill the whole spectrum of bpm from 120 bpm doomcore to 240 bpm. speedcore. it’s definetely something  we should try to push. I feel it can make parties even more interesting. there is allready some 160 bpm like Igneon System – Fuck God.

The very harsh dubstep sound of Balkansky, Loop Stepwalker, Niveau Zéro or Brainpain could also fit into this low bpm harsh industrial dark as fuck music. it would be cool if we see more 140/160 bpm track in this range to crossbreedize warmup.

On the other hand well produced hard 220 bpm stuff would be nice so we can end the party to full blasting stuff. (this way we could mix crossbreed stuff with UK hardcore stuff that share a same spirit). T

he problem of different bpm is that the first who do it are a bit alone and we need lot’s of tunes in the same bpm so djs can make set with them

One thing i think we should keep is the rythmic creativity of darkstep. Darkstep always had experimental tune with really complex rythm. I hope the crossbreed stuff could mix with this and not means bringing back only  to 2 step (with hardcore kickdrum). Complex rythm is so nice and if mixed well could blast the dancefloor.

I hope also we see more live set. nowadays with ableton live or elektron octatrack we can bring full audio quality live pa. This mean we can have far better sounding live pa than in the past. hope we see more of this kind of act as it brings a lots more creativity to the dancefloor. I’m not dissing dj set.  Live pa is just another level of control on the sound be in it the composition, in the way the bpm evolve and so on… Hope we see more of these

My last point also could be to stress the spirit of crossbreed. What’s crossbreeding about ?

Is it about putting breakbeat into hardcore drum pattern ? no way it’s not ground breaking Producer or Hellfish does it like years ago. So what really define crossbreed and what make it work on the floor ?

It’s the openmindness of it and the way it bring a nu way to crossfertilize both hardcore and darkstep. This is this spirit of creativity we should keep. if you take Lowroller, Dj Hidden and Switch Technique each of them produce crossbreed but they don’t produce stuff that sound the same. In fact this is why crossbreed is great.

It’s not a formula : just a blank canvas of angry loud harsh dark dance music. and we should try to keep it that way. So let’s hybridize more and more with every thing from rythmic noise, dark ambiant, frenchcore, uk hardcore, dark brostep, death metal and so on…  the sky is the limit

Just remind it’s just my point of view not the final God word of wisdom but it’s there so we discuss were we (the producer/dj/party people) want the crossbreed goes

THE FUTUR IS CROSSBREED

Tell me what you think of this in the comment or on the facebook fanpage.

If you want you can share you track on the group i’ve created Crossbreed group on soundcloud

What is darkstep about ?

Lot’s of people have asked me : what is darkstep about ?

I think in fact it’s a pretty good question because most of the people don’t go to club for this kind of fast, dark and noisy music. but darkstep is different… a lot. And with more and more people liking it it could be a good reason to answer this question.

Every people have his/her own personnal reason to love or hate darkstep but i think we share something. So i will try to show you why i love darkstep. Darkstep is not only about having fun at parties even if it’s so much important for a dance music. It also have some deep meanings

A first way to understand this is to discuss with people at darkstep rave and see that they’re the true hardcore scene of dance music. they know artists, they are deeply connected to the music they love. They ‘re not only there for the chicks and pills (even if it’s important also). They know the music and want to dance like maniacs.

So what is darkstep about ?

Darkstep is dark music for dark people.

It’s the sound of a dying world. It’s the fast and schyzophrenic music of a world that have gone mad.

It’s the sound of interconnected people that don’t lead to comunication but to only noise. It’s the music of technological nightmare when science don’t lead to freedom but to corporate and governemental control.

It’s the sound of urban decay through drugs and poverty.

But darkstep is not an nihilistic hopeless music like noise music can be, in fact it’s the opposite. Darkstep turns this experience of dying world into a fun experience. it turns alienation into a something not far from sexual pleasure. The world is going mad let’s have a party. We don’t agree with this world, we just want to party. In this darkstep is higly subversive because trying to escape this mad world is the first step to understand it’s a dead world and that we could change it. This nightmare could be turn into something else

Darkstep is dark music for dark people.

KEEP IT DARK !!

Bring back the darkside nation

It the beginning there was house music. our house. and after that it evolve into seperate houses. different scenes for different peoples. in fact i haven’t seen the days of house nation but i’ve heard lots of people talk about it. It was a great time when all the different kind of electronic music could be played at the same parties.  It was all about getting creative with body and technologies.

People created a really special place : the club. all about experimenting your mind your body and your soul with all the possibilites of modern night city life. even if the feel of hardcore techno or drum’n'bass are different to trance or house. all this music share this experience of club and free spirit of parties life. this special feeling of euphoria you get and the feeling that your share this joy with lot’s of people at the same time that are really like you and really different

And after that the rave split into different scene and genre. At the beginning i think it was a good thing. Nu possibilites where experimented. The electronic instrument evolve and become less expensive leading lots of people to try to make some music.

Nowadays it seems we hit a wall. Lot’s of producer i’ve talk with and lot’s of party people are bored of such genre limitations. In fact the scene are not so constricted as closed minded people think so. Lot’s of young raver i’ve talked with who love heavy dubstep are now seeking new sound and looking for something stronger leading them to darkstep or hardcore techno. lot’s of corehead now like darkstep or some dubstep.  dnb and hardcore are merging into brokencore. the list goes on…

It’s time to bring back the house nation but with a twist ! time have changed. Electronic dance music have changed ! bringing back the house nation is not like using the flux capacitor to go back in time. it’s more like taking into account the evolution and try to be more open minded like people use to be. This is the time for the darkside nation when all the dark electronic dance music unite to try to bring some forward thinking, creative and twisted new music and parties

That why this blog will now change. Of course it’ll focus on darkstep but it’ll also open to industrial hardcore of all kind (from speedcore to darkcore to doomcore) and heavy dubstep (brostep). there will be also a podcast (with various genre) but i’ll tell your more as soon as i can.

KEEP IT DARK !!!

A new direction for darkstep : Brokencore

Lately there is more and more tracks that melt hardcore techno with darkstep. There is quite a fews names allready to name this sound : Core’n'Bass, Crossbreed for example. I call it Brokencore.

Most of the time theses tracks combine huge overly distorted bassdrums with phat snares. It seems to me that this is something really fresh and exciting for darkstep. Of course the use of distorted kick with snare is not something new.

Breakcore have allready about this, you could also have breakbeat in uk hardcore but what make this brokencore exciting is the emphasis on industrial aggressive bass tones from hardcore and the broken feels of darkstep. Breakcore have a really punkish feel. it all about creating digital chaos. On the other hand brokencore use also extremely distorted tones but it’s about harshness and heaviness. It’s a bit like metal and punk hardcore. They’re both distorted guitar based music but punk is about chaos whereas metal is about heaviness.

What make Brokencore so good also is that you can combine it with hardcore techno tracks or darkstep tracks. It make mix more complex and creative.

It give also lots of new space to create. Dnb is a really clean and fast music but with some hardcore fuel it turns it into something far more extreme. Hardcore give brokencore a really harsh sound design when darkstep dnb give a broken rythm and emphasis on speed feeling with ghost notes.

Of course more and more producer are experimenting things with hardcore kick but i hope it will be only a new direction. What make it great is to keep mix diverse and complex. 6 hours of brokencore could be perhaps boring. But mix than go back and forth from march darkstep, roller, technoid, snare rush stuff to brokencore to indus hardcore and so on : brokencore is not only about putting hardcore kicks with snare it’s about crossfertilization of hardcore and darkstep

it’s about making extreme journey of dark electronic music. its about experimenting and pushing the envellope of dark extreme yet dancefloor music

If you want to listen to this kind of sound just search through SBR with this tag

Check also the BrokenCore soundcloud group and submit your tracks